A Stitch in Haste

Just a few days ago I decried the outdated, bigoted and dangerous ban on gays donating blood.

Well, it terms out I had a case of premature elucidation:

To the dismay of gay-rights activists, the Food and Drug Administration is about to implement new rules recommending that any man who has engaged in homosexual sex in the previous five years be barred from serving as an anonymous sperm donor.

The FDA has rejected calls to scrap the provision, insisting that gay men collectively pose a higher-than-average risk of carrying the AIDS virus. Critics accuse the FDA of stigmatizing all gay men rather than adopting a screening process that focuses on high-risk sexual behavior by any would-be donor, gay or straight.

"Under these rules, a heterosexual man who had unprotected sex with HIV-positive prostitutes would be OK as a donor one year later, but a gay man in a monogamous, safe-sex relationship is not OK unless he's been celibate for five years," said Leland Traiman, director of a clinic in Alameda, Calif., that seeks gay sperm donors.
...
In a letter to the FDA, Lambda Legal has suggested a screening procedure based on sexual behavior, not sexual orientation. Prospective donors -- gay or straight -- would be rejected if they had engaged in unprotected sex in the previous 12 months with an HIV-positive person, an illegal drug user, or "an individual of unknown HIV status outside of a monogamous relationship."

Now certainly there isn't the same national urgency with sperm donation as with our ubiquitous blood shortage. Nevertheless, there can be no justification for rules that are not only discriminatory but also downright irrational. This policy is based on and perpetuates the most nonsensical of gay stereotypes. Shame on the FDA.

As I blogged about blood donation: This is not science. This is not public health. This is politics.

I like the sound of the Lambda proposal. But if that's not enough, then why not implement the same proposal I suggested in my post on the blood donor ban: Allow anyone to donate if they meet all the other screening criteria and can produce lab results indicating that they tested HIV negative within the past year?